Global Burden of Cardiovascular Diseases

In recent years, the dominance of chronic diseases as major contributors to total global mortality has emerged and has been previously described in detail elsewhere. By 2005, the total number of cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths (mainly coronary heart disease, stroke, and rheumatic heart disease) had increased globally to 17.5 million from 14.4 million in 1990. Of these, 7.6 million were attributed to coronary heart disease and 5.7 million to stroke. More than 80 percent of the deaths occurred in low and middle income countries (WHO, 2009e).

Based on 2007 to 2010 data, 33% of US adults ≥ 20 years of age have hypertension. This represents ~ 78 million US adults with hypertension. The prevalence of hypertension is similar for men and women. African American adults have among the highest prevalence of hypertension (44%) in the world.

Green tea shows small effect on cholesterol

The trials lasted anywhere from three weeks to six months, with the green-tea users showing a bigger average decline in LDL and total cholesterol than their counterparts in the control groups.

The benefit seemed to be limited to people who already had High cholesterol when they entered the study.

Overall, teas appeared more effective than capsules. But Phung said there isn’t enough data to be sure that the beverage is better than the extract.

“We would really need to have some head-to-head studies comparing the different forms of green tea in order to show which ones work more effectively,” Phung said.

There are other questions, too - including what dose of green tea catechins is “ideal.”

In the trials Phung’s team studied, the daily catechin dose ranged from 145 milligrams to 3,000 milligrams. But the researchers were not able to test for a “dose-response” effect - which would have shown whether the cholesterol benefits increase as the catechin dose goes up.

As for side effects, green tea is considered safe in moderate amounts - though the drink and the extracts contain caffeine, which some people may need to avoid.

There have also been a few dozen cases of liver damage reported among people using green tea extracts, but it’s not certain that the supplements are to blame.

The current study had no industry funding, and none of the researchers reports financial conflicts of interest.

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